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To add further, I have rememberances of Kapil's brilliance in 80's. Even 1985 World cup and England tour victory of 1986 had Kapil’s stamp all over it. It was such a Kapil craze during my school days that kapil's picture will be invariably present with all mates. He was more than a sportsman. A hero and idol for one and all. . With the type of batsman we had those days with test cricket in dominance, Kapil’s natural stroke making was a sight to watch and attracted huge audience for the game and the public had a great time. His running between the wickets made co-batsman of his time sweat like anything. He was one of the fittest players in the game internationally..

Most importantly, for a man who has played for close to 14 years, he was mostly injury free. This shows the hard work Kapil had put in day in and out and without the technological advancement of these days. And not to forget the fact that Kapil had bowled mostly in subcontinent pitches which were just tailor made for spinners and back breaking for fast bowlers. He had taken 400+ wickets in spite of all this. His was a natural & raw talent, a God’s Gift. Much of India’s cricket fortunes rested with him and he had always given his best to the team’s cause and made our country proud.

It not without reason that Kapil continues to be Only the World Cup Winning Skipper of our country, and this will continue to be the benchmark for all others to emulate.

For all his greatness, he has no airs around him and calls spade a spade. He had hit lot of sixers on the field which he continues off the field also.

Other memories of Kapil Dev,
In the lord's test match against england in 1990, India needed 24 to avoid avoid follow on with just hirwani at the other end.
When eddie hemmings ( the same guy who tooks kapil's wicket in the world cup semifinal in 1987) bowled the over, kapil hit 4 consecutive sixes. Though, we avoided follow on, we lost the test match.scored a brilliant century in the first innings in the tied match against australia.http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/stat...tch/63438.html

They used to show this in a Boost advertisement with Kapil's voice over. Etched in my memory forever.

under kapil's captaincy, the victory against pakistan in a low scoring ODI and defeat against pakistan with javed miandad hitting chetan sharma for a six cannot be forgotten so easily.

New Delhi, June 22: Now we know how Gordon Greenidge had felt like 25 years ago when what he thought was an out-swinger darted back a mile to take his off-stump, starting India off towards its greatest cricketing glory.

Almost everyone at today’s celebration of the 1983 World Cup victory behaved like that freak ball by Balwinder Singh Sandhu, with legendary foes going gaga in each other’s praise. And an excess of champagne had nothing to do with it.

Kapil Dev dripped gratitude to cricket chief Sharad Pawar for holding the silver jubilee party — so what if the board had sacked him from the National Cricket Academy after he joined the breakaway Indian Cricket League, and removed his picture from his home ground?

“I must congratulate the board and its president Sharad Pawar for hosting such a reception for us,” the captain of the 1983 side beamed. “Frankly, we never expected to get such treatment.”

Bull’s eye on that one: the board had initially refused to organise the event just to avoid honouring Kapil and three of his ’83 mates who have joined the ICL.

Maybe it was the Rs 25 lakh the board handed each of the 14 Cup heroes? No, Kapil said it was the “love” that counted.

“Everybody needs money but it is not everything in life,” he said. “It is the love and affection that is more important. I am overwhelmed by the way the board has remembered us for what we did in 1983.”

Neither love nor cash, though, awaits the current cricketers who hitched their stars to Kapil, now chairman of the ICL executive board. A few hours before the party began, the board had banned English county teams that have ICL players in their ranks from its newest cash cow, the Twenty20 Champions League.

But Kapil wasn’t over. He virtually credited Sunil Gavaskar, with whom he had feuded through most of the ’80s, with inspiring the Cup victory.

Gavaskar was “our hero” Kapil said. “He taught us to win and inspired every one of our generation.”

Sunny, not to be outdone, saluted Kapil as “still the greatest cricketer India has ever produced”.

“The way people follow Sachin (Tendulkar) today, we used to follow Kapil at that time. He is the man who showed us the way. The time when Kapil lifted the trophy was the greatest memory of my life,” the former opening batsman said.

If Kapil could praise Pawar and the board, could Mohinder Amarnath, Man-of-the-Match in that final, be left behind?

He plonked himself beside former board president and selector Raj Singh Dungarpur, a man he had called a “joker” for running a vendetta against him. They were seen smiling and exchanging jokes for about five minutes.

All it needed was for Greenidge to turn up and embrace Sandhu, saying how marvellous it felt getting bowled by a beauty like that.

Excellent thread and pics Sridhar
When I started watching cricket seriously, he was at the retirement stage. He was treated rather shabbily and he was not on top of his game either. I have seen a lot of the matches he played in ESPN's cricket classics. He was pretty much a line and length bowler with an odd bouncer here are there. He was immaculately accurate as far as I have seen him.

There is a book on him in thamizh - cricket singam kapil dev . I own that book (its in India now) and have read that many times years back. Thats a very well written book, which summarizes his career beautifully. From his first wicket till the 434th wicket. I learnt from that book that Kapil commanded respect when he became the captain of a really-talented-but-not-performing players. In the book, Sunil Gavasker, srikant, jimmy and a bunch of others recount their experiences playing under him and how he was able to inspire them to world-beaters.

Another thing about him worth mentioning is his camaraderie with the opponents and his sportmanship. Quoting from Wiki:

In their first match of the World Cup, Australia scored 268 against India. However, after the close of innings, Kapil Dev agreed with the umpires that the score should be increased to 270 as one boundary during the innings had been mistakenly signalled as a four and not a six. In their reply, India scored 269 falling short of Australia's score by one run. In the Wisden Cricketer's Almanack, it was reported that "Kapil Dev's sportsmanship proved the deciding factor in a close-run match".

Favorite performances:
1. His death-spell in the 1983 semi-final
2. His 100* against the west Indies just before the world cup to save a test match
3. His 10-4-21-4 in South Africa in our first tour to SA
4. His 33 ball 50 which was the fastest fifty by an Indian player at that time.
5. His 5/70 against England in his early days in the Wankhede.

His biggest embarrasments: Ruthless windies drubbing India (5-0 in test, 3-0 in ODIs I think) right after the world cup victory and the last ball sixer by Javed!

Another thing about him worth-mentioning is his strike rate in ODIs, which I think is in the upper-90s. (Average in the mid-20s I think). He played in an era of no-fielding-restrictions. He definitely is one of India's best sportsmen ever

In their first match of the World Cup, Australia scored 268 against India. However, after the close of innings, Kapil Dev agreed with the umpires that the score should be increased to 270 as one boundary during the innings had been mistakenly signalled as a four and not a six. In their reply, India scored 269 falling short of Australia's score by one run. In the Wisden Cricketer's Almanack, it was reported that "Kapil Dev's sportsmanship proved the deciding factor in a close-run match".

His biggest embarrasments: Ruthless windies drubbing India (5-0 in test, 3-0 in ODIs I think) right after the world cup victory and the last ball sixer by Javed!

Seven social sins:
1.Politics without principles
2.Wealth without work
3.Pleasure without conscience
4.Knowledge without character
5.Commerce without morality
6.Science without humanity
7.Worship without sacrifice

Another thing about him worth mentioning is his camaraderie with the opponents and his sportmanship. Quoting from Wiki:

In their first match of the World Cup, Australia scored 268 against India. However, after the close of innings, Kapil Dev agreed with the umpires that the score should be increased to 270 as one boundary during the innings had been mistakenly signalled as a four and not a six. In their reply, India scored 269 falling short of Australia's score by one run. In the Wisden Cricketer's Almanack, it was reported that "Kapil Dev's sportsmanship proved the deciding factor in a close-run match".

The 1987 world cup opener took place in chennai. Ravi shastri was the fielder who signalled four to the umpire and later they changed it to 6 during lunch break. Like the thrilling tied test in 1986, this was also a nail biting thriller. Maninder Singh was the culprit on both the occasions - the last man to be dismissed.

Originally Posted by Nerd

His biggest embarrasments: Ruthless windies drubbing India (5-0 in test, 3-0 in ODIs I think) right after the world cup victory and the last ball sixer by Javed!

I don't think javed's 6 can be termed as embarrasment.
He was a genius and it was his day. Pakistan were staring towards defeat and he singlehandedly won the match.

But, Kapil mankad-ing peter kirsten was not in the right spirit and defenitely one of the embarrasing moments for Kapil.

But sriranga, Kapil did warn him multiple times and let him go. You can
quite agitated and gesturing repeatedly that it was the third time that he decided to remove the bails. So I am reluctant to call it as against the spirit - as Wessels and co tried to portray it.

btw a quote about the original Mankad-ing. When the incident happened, Fred Truman was asked if he would have removed the bails in such a situation. His response was: "the question does not arise...when Fred Truman is bowling the non-striker is not eager to get to the other end"